A thought occurred to me, I am hearing that he had an entanglement with the camera mount. If that is true and it was the main that was caught, he might have been free stowing most of his lines. I had spoken to him about this in the past and he did not think it was much of a problem.

I explained about pilot chute malfunction and how it could lead to a big mess of lines all over his back.

Does anyone know if he kept this practice of free stowing all but the locking stows up?

In reading the article the witness said he heard the parachute and looked up to see the jumper at about 70M (230 feet). If the canopy was elongated (assumption because of noise report) at 230 feet why didn't it inflate? Reserves are supposed to open in no more than 300 feet. It should take about a second to go from pilot chute launch to bag extraction.

John, can you expand on your thoughts about rsl? As this was a camera jump, it seems you believe different to 'conventional' wisdom.

Times have changed and cameras are smaller (even when jumping video and SLR) than they used to be, canopies more aggressive, and camera wings are an additional complication. So maybe the argument in favour of an rsl is stronger than the risk now?

Bill, I hope you are not saying that you have got to be lucky to get a reserve to open in 300 feet. If you are that is an inditement of our equipment. Sure mains take longer by design but a reserve is required by regulation to open in 300 feet, lucky or not.

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Also, keep in mind that people are incredibly bad judges of altitude from the ground.

True, but to "hear" and look up to see the object thru inpact is usually worth considering. If he had had an AAD we could tell.

JS

AAD firing altitude was determined by taking the required maximinum deployment distance (300ft) times the 2.5 safety margin commonly used by NASA to get 750 feet. Now some want and will get adjustable firing altitudes to allow them to be adjusted up to 1500 feet AGL. This is something to chew on, but on another thread.

As this was a camera jump, it seems you believe different to 'conventional' wisdom.

Times have changed and cameras are smaller (even when jumping video and SLR) than they used to be, canopies more aggressive, and camera wings are an additional complication. So maybe the argument in favour of an rsl is stronger than the risk now?

Yes, and when I've jumped the occasional side mount Sony and every jump with my GoPro I leave my RSL hooked up. Although my canopy is not aggressively loaded (a little over 1.3), I still think that too many people think they need to stop spinning in order to fire their reserve. As soon as you chop, you're traveling in a straight line. Perfect time to deploy the reserve. I do consciously tuck my head forward to keep as much room as possible between my reserve and my camera(s).

I see too many videos of cutaways where, instead of putting their feet on their butt and aggressively arching, people flop around like a bad AFF student doing his first diving exit. I think better training and practice would lead to people having more stable cutaways and reserve deployments.

The ratio of reserves-tangled-on-cameras to cutaway-then-no/low-reserve pull is very low. I'm no expert camera guy or equipment guru. All I know is what I've seen and the reports I've read. I feel people are too eager to ditch the RSL, as if it were like training wheels. Soft pillow handles, big wings, harnesses loosened for swooping and highly loaded canopies seem to sometimes present problems that our friends haven't been able to solve in time. Many would have been saved by a short line of nylon ribbon.